When Deanna Jones, now chief human resources officer at Baker Hughes, began her career at the energy and technology company, the rig workers would typically work 28 days on an oil and gas platform and then have 28 days off.

“Early in your career, the ability to take a month and go skiing or travel the world when you’re not actually at work can actually be something that’s very engaging, but I do think it is very difficult,” Jones told moderator Paul Pavlou, the Dean of the C.T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston, during From Day One’s Houston Conference.

Although having 28 consecutive days off gave rig workers a lot of freedom, they didn’t have much flexibility during their time on a platform, says Jones.

“So, one of the things that we’ve been investing in is a lot of automation and the ability to be in a situation where we can operate a lot of the things that are on the platform, but not actually being physically in those spaces, but in the offices,” she said, noting this is allowing Baker Hughes to “provide a different type of flexibility out into the future.”

During the pandemic, the company automated a number of drilling services.

“It’s amazing to see those leaps in terms of technology adoption, when you have to go through that and then realize you can do work differently,” Jones said. “I think the pandemic allowed us to really think about the art of the possible as it related to flexibility.”

Employers must be flexible in all aspects to attract the best and brightest minds, says Jones. “If we’re not willing to be flexible in the way that we think about work, how are we ever going to attract and retain the workforce of the future?” she said.

Stamping Your Skills Passport

Flexibility in the workplace helps employees to transition from the work they are currently doing to what their jobs will involve down the road. For example, “How do I take someone who understands technology from one perspective in oil and gas and take them into something like carbon capture and storage or geothermal?” she said.

The key is to determine what transferable skills an employee has and which ones they need to develop, according to Jones. Instead of an individual getting a degree and using that knowledge throughout their career, they begin thinking of their skill set as a passport to a continuous learning journey, she says.

One of Jones’ mentees who plans to work in human resources did a rotation in sales and commercial. He found it daunting at first, but then realized, “Wow, I use a lot of skills in HR that actually apply in that sales environment.”

Embracing Inclusion is Key to Attracting Employees

Flexibility goes together with inclusion, another critical core value for companies, when it comes to making the workplace more welcoming to the broadest possible pool of talent.

“Employee resource groups are a way for us to create communities of like-minded people across the organization for them to come together from whatever background they are from and be able to provide insights to the organization around ways we could change or adapt so we become more open and inclusive to those various groups,” she said.

For example, members of the employee resource group for parents can give corporate leadership feedback on the work schedules and employee benefits that work best for them.

For a global company like Baker Hughes, it’s important to have a multicultural employee resource group that can provide insight into what makes sense for different regions of the world, Jones says.

The integration of inclusion and technology to create a more flexible working environment is going to be absolutely incredible in terms of unlocking human performance over the next 20 to 30 years. “I have said to people recently that I wish I was starting my career at this moment,” she said.

Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.